Staff Reports

Led by guard Katherine Benter’s 25 points, the Brownstown Central girls basketball team broke open a first-quarter tie with a dominating second period to pull away from host Eastern Pekin, 54-40, Saturday.

The Braves moved from a 9-9 stalemate after the first eight minutes to a 27-13 halftime lead to take control of the game.

Hannah Stahl’s 14 points complemented Benter after Maddy Hackman got into early foul trouble and had to sit out for stretches.

“Defensively, our girls were locked into the scouting report,” said coach Brandon Allman. “Andrea Bair and Avery Koch battled on the interior defensively and rebounded well for us.”

Koch joined Benter with a team-high 7 rebounds and Bair had 5.

Brownstown was coming off a tough loss to Seymour Thursday night.

“It was a great bounce-back win for our program against a very well-coached, Pekin team,” Allman said. “It was a superb team effort by every single girl. We have to keep grinding and getting better.”